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How BT does business with its customers – part 2

Remember the order I placed for BT Infinity back on March 12th? If you don’t, then read this blog post first.

So with the activation date finally agreed to May 6th, BT calls a few days earlier stating that ‘the appointment confirmed for 6th May has unfortunately not been confirmed with the engineers’ diary, so we need to reschedule’.

So a fourth appointment is now booked, this time for May 22nd. Wanting to take the utmost precaution, I email BT the day before the engineer’s visit requesting categorical confirmation that the appointment is still going ahead. BT rings me at 8:30am the next day: ‘an engineer is definitely coming today between 8am and 1pm’.

You know the story by now: I wait. No one turns up.

So I decide to write a letter to BT’s chief executive, Gavin Patterson, outlining the current state of affairs. I also take care of copying the local parish clerk who has seen similar issues between BT and other parish residents and who kindly offered to help. The letter explains the situation and I summarise:

b. BT failed to turn up for 3 appointments, therefore wasting a total of 15 hours of our time (in actual waiting time at home).

I formally request for the order to be fulfilled within 21 days and for a reasonable compensation for the time we wasted waiting for BT engineers to turn up.

A few days later, someone from BT by the name of Alan Hulthen rings and leaves a voicemail message. I ring him back and he apologises profusely for the mess on BT’s part. He then resolves to call BT’s call centre to book an appointment with an engineer on my behalf. He explains: ‘I want to get this sorted out for you this week’. The week goes by and no news from poor Alan. Is he still on the phone trying to get through?